Posted on 07/27/2013 2:59:13 PM PDT by ckilmer
whoops that above link is the wrong link to the utube of the thorim dream.this is it. http://motherboard.vice.com/read/motherboard-tv-the-thorium-dream
Interesting stuff
I wonder if his support of things like this is the real reason the hard left hates the otherwise rather leftist Gates so much?
The environmental movement often appears to me to interested not so much in the environment as it is nature worship. Any form of energy that allows people to not live in mud huts is frowned on
All the advantages for thorium-powered nuclear reactors still apply, but apparently there is a large constituency for the prevention of widespread adoption of a cheap, reliable and safe source of energy for the population at large.
Uranium-powered nuclear reactors have received the lion’s share of funding into research to make them more reliable, at the expense of funding thorium-based reactors, for what apparently is one overriding reason - it is impossible to weaponize the spent fuel from a thorium reactor into a thermonuclear bomb of some kind. It is my firm belief that the “spent” uranium rods, by-product of uranium power plants, which still contain some 97% of the potential extractable energy when removed from service, are retained for only one purpose - the production of fission and fusion thermonuclear weapons, or at least the threat to carry out such a program.
The presence of such a threat sure keeps the SANE crowd pumped up, but then, they actually have another agenda - maintaining an artificial scarcity of potential means to spread prosperity to parts of the world that do not now enjoy the benefits. With prosperity comes independence and freedom, through competition and assignment of benefits based upon individual initiative - rewarding merit.
And the possibility of that just sends some folks into fits of paranoia and jealousy.
If Gates supports it it probably reduces fertility somehow. That seems to be his and Melinda’s whole MO in the past 15 years.
Fixed
Despite their talking points, our socialists are less interested in the result than in the process, the process being the destruction of 'capitalism', which is their narrow Marxian view of natural economic activity. On a personal level, they don't want others to be demonstrably more successful at life than them, i.e. envy.
So they want to impede or destroy anything that might create greater economic activity or prosperity. That includes oil exploration, production and transportation, shale gas, nuclear power, and, yes, thorium energy. You will see widespread attention being given lately to the dangers of thorium reactors: gamma rays, etc. Only a few years ago it seemed like they would support the "champagne of petroleum". Sure enough they spread their views on aquifer pollution to the point that France, against its interests, now bans gas fracking. We will soon see this happen with thorium.
Appropriately, the countries that are influenced by the socialists will suffer declining influence and those that follow common sense will achieve prosperity. That does not bode well for "developed" nations.
Thorium powered coal to liquids. Best of both worlds!
This might be the first thing he’s done right in a couple of decades
Contributing Editor / Brooklyn, New York
Brian Merchant is a freelance writer and editor living in Brooklyn, NY. He covers politics for TreeHugger, with a focus on climate and energy issues. Brian has written for Slate, Paste, Salon, GOOD, and the Huffington Post, among many others.
Brian Merchant profile at TreeHugger.com
Yep, good old Brian looks like your Go-To guy for accurate, unbiased information & commentary on various energy sources....
/sarc
There is no excuse for any power reactor to not be “walk-away safe”. We have over 100 operating nuclear power plants in the US and because of political opposition to a national repository for spent fuel, those power plants are now forced to store spent fuel onsite. Most of those storage facilities require ongoing active cooling.
For me the issue isn’t that the cooling and safety won’t be maintained by competent and dedicated crews. The issue is: what will be the consequences when maintaining cooling is impossible due to some cause that is beyond the ability of the crews and infrastructure to recover from.
This is exactly the case at this very moment in Japan at Fukushima where a tsunami destroyed the ability of the facility to maintain cooling of the spent fuel pool.
It took many years for us to get in this mess. The sooner we start to work our way out, the sooner we won’t have the risk of this kind of disaster to worry about.
I wonder if his support of things like this is the real reason the hard left hates the otherwise rather leftist Gates so much?
.........
hard to say. Might have something to do with windows.
The environmental movement often appears to me to interested not so much in the environment as it is nature worship. Any form of energy that allows people to not live in mud huts is frowned on
.......
agree.
Well one of the biggest reasons the Federal labs abandoned the two thorium reactors they were testing — was because they were not dual use. You can’t use thorium for nuclear weapons.
Not the whole MO but certainly a big part of it. Fertility has been going down for quite some time. This decline in fertility has not been attributed to nuclear fission. However, its likely that anyone irradiated with atomic energy will see a decline in their fertility if not their life expectancy.
There is no excuse for any power reactor to not be walk-away safe.
.........
Yeah that’s part of the genius of thorium lftr reactors. they are walk away safe.
imho the oil/gas industry will succeed despite the best efforts of the enviro’s to stifle it.
On the other hand if thorium lftr reactors get made — they will likely eclipse the the hydrocarbon industry because they can produce electricity for about 1/10th the cost of the cheapest coal.
That will result in an enormous increase in the wealth and prosperity of the whole world — in addition to an enormous increase in the use of electrical power—including in automobiles.
I still don’t trust Gates. Every word out of his mouth is related to ‘overpopulation’, ‘sustainability’, ‘reproductive health’ (which we know is a synonym for abortion), and more.
Greenies worship dirt. “Progress” to these people is when the government becomes the repository of all virtue.
Perhaps FR can have a “Thorium” ping?
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.